Finest Hangboards of 2023 | GearJunkie

How We Tested Hangboards

There are many experienced climbers on the GearJunkie team. Collectively, we have poured thousands of hours into dangling off of tiny edges in an ongoing effort to get stronger.

For this particular roundup, Austin Beck-Doss combed the entire hangboard market and carefully trained on over 10 models to compare their pros and cons. While testing, Austin paid careful attention to comfort and ergonomics, hold variety, versatility, surface texture, and durability. Numerous boards were carefully assessed for their ability to facilitate progression.

Austin and other folks on the GearJunkie team have been testing hangboards for years — but the process is ongoing. For this article’s most recent update, we reassessed our recommendations and added a new product. As new hangboards hit the market, we’ll be sure to test and consider them for this list.

As of now, the hangboards on this list are the best available. For dedicated climbers seeking efficient sessions and successful sends, these tools can certainly help.

Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose a Hangboard

The hangboard market has never been as full of high-quality options as it is right now. However, so many choices can make it difficult to actually make a selection. Here, we break it down so you can find the right hangboard for you.

Determine Your Goal

First, it’s important to think about what kind of climber you are, what kind of climber you’d like to become, and how a hangboard would best help you through the process. Although there’s a subjective element to the difficulty scale for grading climbing routes, grades can be a useful benchmark when shopping for a hangboard.

Though rock climbing requires a variety of skills, strengths, and techniques, finger strength is the ultimate key to progressing as a climber. Hangboards, with their various edges and pockets, directly target the fingers.

Climbers who scale up to around V3 boulders and 5.10 routes are generally considered in the beginner and intermediate categories. Boulders from V4 to V7 or so and routes from 5.11 to low-end 5.13 could be considered advanced. Finally, V8+ boulders and 5.13+ routes are more or less in the elite range.

While you’re shopping for a hangboard, you’ll find the manufacturer is usually clear about which category of climbers the board is designed for.

A well-maintained board can last many years or perhaps decades, even with regular use. For this reason, it’s important to view your purchase as an investment.

As you grow stronger and your training needs change, you’ll want your board to continue to meet those needs. It’s helpful to purchase a board with some hold sizes that are currently outside of your ability level, especially if you have ambitions to significantly increase your finger strength over time.

Hold Types

Almost all hangboards have some variation of a jug — another word for a large, positive, easy-to-grab hold. Beyond this, beginner hangboards have edges and pockets that range from 20 mm to 50 mm deep. These depths meet the general needs of a beginner climber entering the world of hangboard training.

When the edge depth is less than 20 mm, it’s recommended you have some intermediate- to advanced-level finger strength to train on it safely. Advanced and elite boards usually include edges and pockets that are 10 mm deep — or perhaps even less!

In addition to edges and pockets, some hangboards include pinches, slopers, and other hold types. For the beginner climber, it’s probably most important to build foundational finger strength through standard pockets, edges, and jugs. For more experienced climbers, other hold types can be a valuable addition to a board.

Slopers and pinches engage different muscles and parts of the hand and fingers, so they offer more nuanced training opportunities. Some climbers may want to train on a certain hold type as a way to prepare for a competition or specific outdoor project.

For slopers, an angle of 30 degrees and up caters to the more advanced climber. Not all hangboards measure their sloper angle. However, some, like the So iLL Iron Palm, include slopers that are fairly approachable for beginners.

Types of Material

Materials should also be a consideration when shopping for a hangboard. For the most part, there are two categories of hangboard materials — wood and polyurethane/polyester resin.

Wood has recently become popular for high-end hangboards. Most wooden hangboards are made using a CNC machine to cut out precise, repeatable grooves that will become the edges and other holds on the finished board.

The texture tends to be slightly smoother on a wood hangboard. This means less abrasion on your skin and (hopefully) fewer forced rest days due to raw fingertips.

However, not all wood hangboards have the same feel. Depending on how they’ve been sanded and finished, a wood hangboard can be super slick or super grippy. Either way, wood hangboards tend to be more expensive than boards in the other dominant category.

Polyurethane or polyester resin hangboards are made from the same material as the climbing holds that litter the walls of any contemporary climbing gym. While some resin boards are made by pouring liquid resin into silicone molds, most are produced by the same CNC process used to make wood boards.

Compared to wood, resin boards are heavy, dense, and coarsely textured on the surface. A resin board’s surface is often more abrasive than a wood board’s surface, and it can cause more fingertip wear per session.

Like wooden hangboards, resin boards need to be lightly cleaned occasionally to prevent the buildup of gunk and chalk as well as to maintain their ideal texture.

How to Hang a Hangboard

A hangboard mounted in your home provides easy access to a training session without making the trip to the gym. Most hangboards come with an instruction manual for proper installation. There are a few important considerations for mounting any board that ensure that you do it right the first time.

Choose a Great Location

Selecting the perfect location is a key step in the installation process. First, consider how it feels in the spaces you’re considering mounting your board.

You want your training area to be comfortable and pleasant enough that you don’t dread your hangboard sessions. For example, a hangboard mounted in a cold, dark garage may end up neglected simply because the setting is unappealing for training.

Once you’ve identified some good location options for mounting your board, think about how it will actually feel to train in each of them. If you’re considering mounting the board above a doorframe, make sure the height of the frame is well-suited to your body.

Do you have to jump or stand on a chair to reach your board? Do your feet drag on the ground when you’re hanging? Ideally, the top of the board should be within reach while standing on the ground with the arms slightly bent. This allows you to comfortably use every hold on the board from a standing position.

Aim to mount your board in an area with a reasonable buffer of open space. You don’t want to have to squeeze in between a sofa and a table during your training sessions. It may be helpful to have a bit of floor space near the board so you have the option to include floor workouts in future sessions.

Safety First

No matter where you choose to install your board, it needs to be safely mounted and structurally sound. You want to get strong, but you don’t want to rip your board off the wall!

If you’re mounting your board above a doorframe or to another part of your home, locate the studs, or internal framing, of your wall of choice.

A few items that will come in handy include a power drill, a level, a stud finder, proper hardware, a backing board, and a variety of drill bits. A backing board is a solid piece of wood measuring 1-2 inches thick that serves as the surface to screw your hangboard onto.

The dimensions of your backing board should be slightly larger than your actual hangboard in both length and width. You want the entire hangboard to fit on the backing board without sitting over the edges. A backing board allows you to minimize the number of holes you drill into your wall or mounting surface.

Once you know the location of your studs or other structural elements, mark them clearly with a pencil. As you decide on the position of both your hangboard and your backing board, use the level to make sure the hangboard is fixed in a perfectly level position.

The backing board is screwed directly into the studs, creating a solid mounting surface for your hangboard. You can trace the outline of your hangboard onto your backing board to ensure perfect positioning when mounting. Before you begin the actual mounting process, double-check all of your elements fit exactly as you want them to.

Time to Install the Hangboard

It’s helpful to have an extra set of hands available to hold things in place while you screw them in with your power drill. Use long screws to mount the backing board to the centerline of the studs as you marked them.

With the backing board in place, align your hangboard with the outline you drew on the backing board. Then begin to screw the hangboard into place. Use shorter screws that will not go all the way through the backing board and into the wall itself.

Most hangboards are made with screw holes already in place. It’s best to use every screw hole for safe, solid mounting. If the board comes with hardware, use it! If the board comes with instructions for installation, refer to those throughout the process.

Finally, with your board in place, try it out. Congratulations! The first step toward at-home finger strength training is complete.

Stay-at-Home Climbing Training Tips

Throughout the pandemic, many climbers have been unable to access climbing gyms and training centers. For this reason, at-home climbing training recently experienced an all-time peak. Climbers around the world are coming up with creative, effective methods of staying strong and pursuing improvement from the safety of their own space.

From kettlebells to medicine balls, lots of pieces of equipment can add value to an at-home training session. For climbers, the hangboard stands alone as perhaps the most effective training tool. Once you’ve got your setup ready to go, the training options that a good hangboard provides are endless.

Evaluate Your Abilities

First, it’s crucial to understand your current abilities, strengths, and weaknesses so you begin your at-home training at an appropriate level. It’s better to start slowly and lean toward the conservative side of things rather than to jump in too quickly, train too hard, and injure a finger or a shoulder in the process.

For example, you can start on the larger holds on your board and work up to the smaller holds. Begin with shorter duration hangs and train up to longer ones. With patience, your hangboard can be a safe and effective source of improvement.

Create a Training Plan

When training at home, it can be difficult to maintain a focused and consistent practice. It may be helpful to schedule your training plan in advance. This way, you aren’t relying on the hope that the inspiration to train will come suddenly and naturally.

Also, it can be helpful to keep notes of your sessions. What exercises did you do? How long did you do them for? Look for progression in your results over time, and use this progress to build motivation and confidence.

Keep Yourself Motivated

It’s not always easy to remember that there is a connection between the monotony of dangling from a hangboard and the joy you receive from climbing. To maintain this all-important link, put up some photos of your favorite climbing area or a specific project above or around your hangboard. You’re training for a reason, and it’s helpful to keep that reason in mind.

Start Simple and Scale

There are endless variations of effective hangboard protocols and programs. However, it’s wise to begin with a simple set of exercises so you don’t get lost in the sea of possibilities — especially for beginners. Included here are a few foundational hangboard exercises to try out as you begin to get the hang of training at home.

Standard Two-Arm Hang

This is the bread and butter of hangboard training. Find two holds of the same size and depth on your board. With one hand in each hold, hang with your shoulders engaged and your elbows slightly bent. For safety, the position of the fingers should be slightly open and not maximally engaged in a full-crimp position.

The full crimp, which involves raised knuckles and placing the thumb on top of the fingers while pulling on a climbing hold, can result in a finger injury. While some climbers choose to use a full crimp while hangboarding, caution is advised.

For the standard two-arm hang, begin with a duration of between 5 and 10 seconds. Between repetitions, rest for at least a full minute. This exercise is hangboarding at its most simple.

For those brand new to hangboard training, the standard two-arm hang is a good place to start building foundational finger strength. A session may include three to 10 reps of the two-arm hang, although you can alter the number of reps and duration as needed.

Offset Hang

The offset hang involves placing the hands offset on two different holds on the hangboard, with one hand significantly higher on the board than the other. For example, place the left hand on an edge somewhere low on the board and the right hand up high on a larger hold, such as a jug. Typically, the higher hand should utilize a larger, less strenuous hold, and the lower hand should pull on a smaller hold.

The offset hang mimics a body position often used while climbing when one hand is above the other. Hang in this position with the shoulders and elbows engaged for five to 10 seconds. Rest at least a minute between repetitions and alternate hands between each rep. Complete four to 10 total reps per session.

One-Arm Hang

The one-arm hang is a more advanced exercise that should be reserved for intermediate to advanced climbers who have developed climbing-specific strength and technique over time.

Select a hold and hang with your core, shoulder, and elbow engaged for 2 to 10 seconds. Use your core to keep your body from swinging and maintain a static, controlled position. Complete between two and five repetitions on each side per session.

These three exercises are simply a possible starting place for your at-home hangboard training. Over time, you can increase the number of repetitions and duration of each hang.

There are other ways to make these exercises more strenuous for advanced climbers, such as adding weight with a weight vest or a harness. There are lots of other exercises out there, so continue to seek the best hangboard protocol for your specific goals as a climber.

Mix It Up

In addition to the hangboard, several other training implements can round out an at-home training center. Grip strengtheners, which come in various forms, are a great and simple way to develop hand and finger strength between hangboard sessions.

These small, portable devices are easy to use while watching a movie, or even while commuting. Cheap and effective, these devices can be a useful way to begin training while you figure out which hangboard to purchase.

Yet another option is the pegboard, a simple option that climbers sometimes use to develop general fitness and foundational upper-body strength. A pegboard is a wall-mounted board with a series of small, round holes. The climber moves up the board by placing pegs, one in each hand, into the holes, typically with their feet dangling below.

The pegboard is not as strenuous on the fingers as the hangboard. So, it can be a good option for climbers who are working to build up their base of strength before shifting their focus to their fingers.

Additional Resources

If you’re looking to perfect your climbing toolkit, don’t forget to check out our in-depth reviews on the best climbing shoes for men and women.

For more information on how to maximize your hangboard’s training benefit, many excellent and thorough resources are available. Several training books delve deeply into the process of structuring an effective hangboard protocol.

These books were written by climbers for climbers. These resources can offer answers to questions that will undoubtedly arise as you explore the path of hangboarding and climbing-specific training.

Our Book Recommendations

Training for Climbing: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance

This book is a high-quality resource. Drawing on the latest research in climbing nutrition and training, this bestseller presents a comprehensive and evidence-based program for improving climbing performance.

Veteran climber and sports scientist Eric Horst has been writing training manuals for decades, including the groundbreaking “How to Climb 5.12.” In “Training For Climbing,” Horst covers topics such as energy system training, developing power endurance and aerobic endurance, and injury prevention.

The Rock Climber’s Training Manual

For climbers of all ability levels, this book offers concrete methods for both immediate and continuous improvement. “The Rock Climber’s Training Manual” expands on the well-regarded Rock Prodigy training method many elite climbers have utilized. Whether you climb 5.8 or 5.15, this book offers proven exercises that can effectively guide your training.

The Rock Warrior’s Way

“The Rock Warrior’s Way” focuses specifically on improving mental strength for climbing. Mental training is covered far less often in climbing literature compared to physical training. However, this is an all-important aspect that can unlock a climber’s full potential.

Author Arno Ilgner draws on sports psychology and his deep experience as a climber to offer guidance on motivation, risk assessment, and mental focus. Mental training can be a particularly beneficial counterpart to hangboard training, resulting in a well-rounded climber with all the tools necessary to meet their goals.

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